The Exterior Giving the Interior its Appearance: Garden House in Tokyo

Kochi Architects Studio has constructed the Garden House in Tokyo. Their strategy here was to not seperate the interior with exterior.

Design: Location of Two boxes and its Meeting Point

In the early stage of the design, the two boxes were originally located separately. However, it was against the principle to have ONE building on ONE site. In addition, these two boxes were also requested to touch each other to optimize both structure and an internal movement.

In the final design, the two boxes were connected in the corner by sharing one structural column. The access between these two boxes was obtained through the inserted small pure glass box. The stainless structure of this glass box is kept minimally to be a part of the geometry. The interior sensation via this glass box provides a nature experience.

About the Garden Design

Tall slim trees grow from the same stem and are planted closely to the house. They are carefully positioned back and into view. They enhance the effect of reflections, creating a depth on the house’s surface. One of the client’s relatives has a house called “Box House 71”- and was constructed by Japanese architect Kazuhiko Namba- next to the eastern side of this property. To create a total landscape experience of these two gardens beyond, the boundary wall was removed and the same landscape designer was chosen to create the coherency and continuity of it.

Project Title: Garden House
Site: Tokyo, Japan
Program: Residence + Atelier
Category: Wooden House 2F
Floor Area: 131.2m2
Site Area: 450.0m2
Completion: Mars 2009
Design: Kazuyasu Kochi / Kochi Architect’s Studio
Structural Engineering: Yukihiro Kato / MI+D Architectural Structure Laboratory
Construction: Sugimoto Kogyo. Co. Ltd
Landscape: Michiko Tokumitsu / Tokuzo

Thinking about the Exterior Space

The key for this project was to treat the garden not as an “Object” for viewing, but as a “Space”, where you can truly feel that you're in a garden landscape.

Two boxes, a residence and an atelier, are located in the center of the large garden. The appearance of the boxes from one side to the other is merged into a reflection on the exterior glass panel surface. These boxes meet at a point where an additional pure glass box is inserted. The life here is expected to be a part of the nature experience. When strolling from the residence to the atelier, and vice versa, the house is perceived as if it is blended into the landscape view.

Location of the Two boxes and its Meeting Point

In the early stage of the design, the two boxes were originally located separately. However, it was against the principle to have ONE building on ONE site and in addition, these two boxes were also requested to touch each other to optimize both structure and internal movement of people. In the final design the two boxes were connected in the corner by sharing one structural column. The access between these two boxes was obtained through the inserted small pure glass box. The stainless structure of this glass box is kept minimum to be a part of the geometry. The interior experience via this glass box becomes the feeling of going outside towards the garden.

The Brightness of Exterior Walls

Fireproof wood wool cement boards are used as the back for the exterior glass panels, the garden view reflects on the surface of these walls.

These boards are rendered with dark water-repellent paint to control the colour brightness of the glass panels, so that they can match with the brightness of the interior space behind the windows during daytime.

Concept: House in Large Garden

Originally there was an old house on the northern side and a garden on the southern side.

Because of the low budget of this project, the building-to-land ratio was limited to only around 20%, therefore it was considered as the main issue of this project to find a way to bring out the potential of this large garden, which covers the 80% of the land.